FROM TAR PAPER SHACKS TO SAFE, SECURE HOMES

Campaign Ended April 30, 2018

Tearing down shacks to build real homes.

We founded Compassionet Impact Development Canada in 2008 after I went with a friend to visit Carlos and Isabel and their nine children. They lived on the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta Mexico in a one room tar-paper shack with no running water, pirated electricity and a mud-floor. I was appalled that families in Mexico, one of Canada’s closest trading partners, have to live in such terrible conditions. I discovered they are not alone. Tens of thousands of people, many of them employed and hard-working in the beach resorts and tourist sites cannot make enough to survive. The minimum wage is less than $10.oo per day.

Tarpaper shacks are not decent housing; they are bug-infested, leaky, flammable and insecure. No place to raise a family. Every year Compassionet Impact Development Canada tears them down and gifts the families with a new home. Help us to do this for families waiting desperately for a decent place to live.

Leonardo, Alejandra and their daughter Izel live in temporary accommodation above the La Vina church in Colonia del Valle, Puerto Vallarta. They have been there two years, ever since they became homeless in their home town and had to move to Puerto Vallarta in search of work. Leo and Alejandra started a fresh juice business. Alejandra gets up everyday at 4am to prepare and bottle the freshly squeezed juices of fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds and coconut milk. She and Leo load them onto his little juice stand attached to his motorcycle and Leo drives off to his corner to sell what he can. Each litre bottle of delicious juice costs 15 pesos. Some days sales are good, others not so much. They make barely enough to survive and cannot afford rent. Despite their hardships, both of them are leaders in their church and give whatever time they have to support their faith community.

Leo and Alejandra need a decent house they can call home. Compassionet Impact Development Canada has selected them for housing in 2018 and they need your financial support to buy a piece of land and build a simple concrete block 350 square foot home. Land is expensive. To buy land and build will cost about 400,000 pesos. We are budgeting $30,000 CAD to complete the build and provide simple furnishings and appliances.

It is almost building season again in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Simple concrete block homes of about 350 square feet cost $15,000 - $20,000Cdn each to build, in addition to the cost of the land. We equip them with proper plumbing, electricity, windows, doors and a good roof.

These are very basic houses but they belong to the family and each house changes lives immediately. Many families continue to upgrade and extend the original home as they are able. Owning their own home allows each family to take the next step out of poverty, gives them hope for the future and a healthier life now. So much for so little.

Please DONATE now so we can build homes in place of shacks.

Our target for winter 2017-2018 is a minimum $50,000 for two new homes.